This Tweet put out yesterday by Marvel has set the Marvelverse ablaze with both speculation and hesitation. A cryptic teaser photo like this one can do some viral damage in this nerdy community, and many fans are anxiously awaiting more details. Does this Tweet tease the infamously cancelled Sam Raimi Spider-Man 4?

Probably not, at least not a film. Although details are minimal and rumors of what the photo means are all over the place, many believe the photo is teasing a new comic line based on Raimi’s trilogy. Regardless, I would definitely be interested in picking up those books, but many fans got really excited for the possibility of a fourth film featuring Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is often heralded as the film series that re-defined the super hero genre. It was the sheer success of these films, along with the early X-Men movies, that gave production companies faith in the genre that the ’90s almost ruined. If these films hadn’t succeeded as they did, we have not have a Marvel Cinematic Universe…

Sony

Love him or hate him, Tobey Maguire is Spider-Man, and although Tom Holland is fantastic, Maguire will always be Peter Parker to a generation that fell in love with the geeky web-slinger on screen. I am one of those fans. Tobey Maguire will always be my Spider-Man, and I am not alone in such view. The photo that was released yesterday proved that. The 2002 film gave us some iconic moments, too. And let’s not forget the iconic characters it introduced. For example, J.K. Simmons will forever be J. Jonah Jameson, and the next actor to portray Norman Osborn will have big shoes to fill in comparison to William Defoe.

Films are cut or cancelled on a weekly basis, and the “what could have been” scenarios that plague Hollywood fuel the industry. Spider-Man 4 is no different. Ever since Sony pulled the plug on Raimi after he failed to meet a rushed deadline and rebooted the franchise with Andrew Garfield, fans have wondered what that fourth film could have been. After the release of the disastrous Spider-Man 3, Raimi reportedly wanted to redeem the series, which makes many fans believe that fourth film would have been phenomenal. Rumors of a John Malkovich Vulture and a Bruce Campbell Mysterio would have been enough to make be buy in and give the film a shot. There are even rumors of other villains, like Kraven the Hunter or Black Canary, that could have been included. We will never know.

Personally, I loved Raimi’s trilogy. Heck, I even enjoyed the third one, even though it was garbage compared to the first two. The inclusion of a fan faction-like Venom showed the greed of power-hungry Hollywood like Sony by its disregard for the true fan, which is ultimately why the film was met with such criticism. Sony never learned from this debacle as demonstrated financial failing of the rebooted Fantastic Four and, to some extent, the Andrew Garfield-led Amazing Spider-Man films. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films were flawed in comparison the illustrious MCU films we have grown accustomed to seeing, but those first two films were truly something special. I would love to see Sam Raimi direct another Marvel film in the future, and yesterday’s Marvel Tweet reignited a heated debate: Would you like to see Tobey Maguire reprise the role of Peter Parker in a Spider-Man 4?